Just A Glimpse
by GuardianSoulBlade
Summary: Trigun Fusion: Trapped in the past, I, legendary gunman Vash the Stampede must survive on Earth. This is my story, under my moniker John Grayson. The subject is life and love. You’ll quit reading after three seconds.
1. Chapter One: The Lost Technology

**Just ****a**** Glimpse**

_**Trigun Fusion: **__Trapped in the past,__ I,__ legendary gunman Vash the Stampede must survive on Earth. __This is my stor__y, under my moniker John Grayson.__ The subject is life and love. You'll quit reading after three seconds. _

**Chapter One: The Lost Technology **

_**Year: 2250; Planet: Gunsmoke; Location: **__**Oregon City**_

Vash the Stampede wandered through the wreckage of the abandoned SEEDS ship. It'd been years since he'd been there. The former inhabitants of the vessel had abandoned it after it had crashed when Leonof the Puppet-Master, Gray the Ninelives, and Hoppered the Gauntlet attacked the ship.

Nicholas D. Wolfwood, the "Churchman" and "Preacher" had helped him fight off the Gung-Ho Guns. Although Vash disapproved of murder, which didn't seem to bother Wolfwood that much, together, they saved the surviving inhabitants and made sure the ship landed safely on the planet below.

Vash believed there could be peaceful solutions, but Wolfwood was set in his ways, he didn't value life like Vash did. Eventually he realized that Vash was right and that no one had the right to take the life of another, but he had learned that the hard way after being in a gunfight with his mentor, Chapel the Evergreen. He had died bravely, although he regretted the fact that he had not realized his mistake sooner.

Vash walked though the empty corridors of the ship as he made his way toward the storage closet. Maybe there was something he could salvage to use to help the people in the town. Vash opened the closet and began searching through it; there were spoiled food canisters and useless scraps of metal lying around; nothing else interesting inside.

His eye fell on a strange, rectangular box; it had a padlock on it and was labeled _F__ragile: Handle wit__h Care._ Picking it up, he was tempted to shake it. He was curious, how could anyone just leave a box here if it was important. And why was it locked? Was there something valuable inside? He found a box full of old tools and decided to take that too, maybe it would help him open the box.

Making his way back to the city, Vash found Meryl and Milly walking through the streets, having just finished lunch.

"Well hello Mr. Vash," Milly greeted him warmly. "What's in the box?"

"I don't know," Vash looked at it thoughtfully, "but I intend to find out."

Vash held up the box and looked at it some more. There didn't seem to be a way to open it besides the primitive lock that kept the lid shut. He set it on the ground and pulled out his the Mateba Autorevolver and fired.

Meryl and Milly looked at him.

"What was that for?" Milly asked.

"To open the box," Vash answered.

"Now, lets see what you are," Vash said, taking out the device inside. It looked like a belt. "Why would a belt have a _Fragile: Handle __with__ Care_ label on it?"

Vash peered through the box's other contents. He found a manual of sorts, old yellow pages containing formulas and diagrams. He began reading. The manual was by someone named Emil LaSalle. The manual spoke of time travel and being able to go back into the past or further into the future, depending on what the wearer wanted. The object on the belt was called a vortex regulator.

"What is it, Vash?" Meryl asked.

"It's ancient technology, capable of time travel, or so it claims," Vash replied, showing the device to Meryl, his girlfriend, they'd known each other for two years, but he'd never gotten up the courage to propose to her properly.

"If this technology has existed then why can't we use it to go back to save Earth from deteriorating?" she asked.

"Well according to the records I found, it says that time travel is very risky and changing the past, even in subtle ways can alter the future," Vash stared at the circular device, it could have been a belt, perhaps the user wore it while they traveled through time.

"Do you think you could use it to save Mr. Wolfwood?" Milly asked. She had loved Nicholas D. Wolfwood, so much so that she had become pregnant with their child, who was named Nicholas, after his father, who had died in a firefight with the Gung-Ho Gun known as Chapel the Evergreen. He had bled to death in a nearby church as Vash arrived too late to save him.

"I don't know, Milly. If I can get it to work, I'll try to go back and save him," Vash said, he picked up the belt and walked off to the hotel where they were staying.

Inside the hotel, Vash pulled out some tools he had taken from the ship. He began examining the equipment; he found a welding tool and began using it, trying to repair the vortex regulator.

"This shouldn't be too hard," Vash said to himself, the technology was very simplistic, why no one else had tried to repair it was mind boggling. After a few hours, he finally finished the repairs.

"Well ladies, the vortex regulator is fixed and now, I'm gonna try it out," Vash smiled in triumph. He went over to the drawer and removed a hologram diary and put it in his coat pocket, then he took out his red duster styled, trench coat.

"Be careful, Vash," Meryl told him. "Good luck."

"Please, bring back Mister Wolfwood if you can save him," Milly said hopefully.

"I'll try," Vash promised. He activated the vortex regulator and having figured out how to program the coordinates, plugged them in for the year 2248. He opened the portal and stepped inside. He saw dozens and dozens of clocks, their hands spinning counterclockwise, he looked down in horror as the vortex regulator began to fizz and spark. It was malfunctioning!

"Aw, man, how am I supposed to get back now?!" Vash shouted to oblivion.

The clocks began to spin faster and faster, where ever he was going, it wasn't his intended destination.

_**Year: 1990; Planet: Earth; Location Metropolis**_

Vash landed with a loud _crash _into a pair of trashcans. He gave a loud groan and sat up.

"Woo! I feel woozy!" Vash said, looking around. He glanced up at the building next to him.

"So where am I? And what year is it?" he asked himself.

"Man, you must've hit your head harder than I thought," a drunken voice told him. "It's Thursday January third, or is it Friday the fourth, I don't know." The man let out a loud "Hic" and continued drinking his can of Bud Light.

"But…where am I?" Vash asked.

"Man, you're an idiot, you're in Metropolis, remember, or did you have too much to drink too?"

"Sorry, just got confused that's all," Vash said. He got up and dusted the dirt off his red trench coat.

Vash began to explore the city, fascinated by the steel buildings. They had plenty of steel on Gunsmoke, but they used it for their Sand Steamers or their guns. The buildings on his homeworld were made of concrete. Steel was used for equipment and weaponry, buildings were easily constructed with other materials.

Vash saw a sign that read, _John's Tasty Bakery. _They had doughnuts! He could hardly believe that he was 260 years in the past and they still had doughnuts.

Vash looked up at the words on the menu. He saw the familiar dollar symbol and looked at the currency in his hands. It wasn't the right kind of money.

Now, the nagging question, how was he supposed to get money? He'd never worked anywhere, he'd been on the run constantly. Having a 60 billion double dollar bounty on his head hadn't exactly motivated him to go get a job somewhere.

He stared at all the doughnuts, getting hungrier and hungrier by the second. They had glazed and chocolate covered doughnuts and they even had sprinkles on them. Vash had thought he died and gone to Heaven, but then again, if he was in Heaven, the doughnuts would be free.

"Hey, do you know how I can get to a library?" Vash asked, now Vash had never been to Earth before, as it was destroyed after all its resources were used up. But he did know that in every town he had ever visited they had a library of some sort containing records of history or important information.

"Why would you want to go there?" A man on the street asked.

"I need to get some information," Vash said, "Please just tell me where it is."

"Down the street, to the right," the man said. "What an idiot!" he said, staring oddly at Vash. "What kind of person asked for the library at seven in the morning? It doesn't even open until ten."

"Okay, thanks Mister," Vash said begrudgingly. "Wonder what his problem is. I'm not _that_ weird. Vash headed toward the library and sat outside on a nearby bench. He was beginning to feel hungry. What was he supposed to eat?

He decided to get his mind off food and pulled out his hologram journal. Maybe gathering his thoughts would pass the time.

**-Hologram ****Diary Log**** Entry: Date:**** January Third****, year 1990; Location: Earth-**

_My name is Vash. I seem to find myself trapped in the past, and when I say the past, I mean the distant past, as in over two hundred and fifty years before I was created kind of past. But anyway, I've finally seen Rem's Earth, where she used to live. I understand why she missed it, it's very nice here._

_I'm very fascinated by this place. It's so different from Gunsmoke, where there's endless desert. Here's there's a lot of concrete, and plants and trees. It's so full of life and I like this place. __I'm like a hunter of peace. One who chases the elusive mayfly of love...or something like __that.__ Now__ I the hunter of peace must learn how to fit in here, until I can fix that vortex regulator. Okay, I gotta go, somebody's coming._

He shut off the recorder and slipped quietly into the library. He stared at the rows and rows of books. He saw the words "Non Fiction" and headed toward that aisle.

He grabbed an encyclopedia and books on American history and took the stack back to a table. He bumped into a woman with dark black hair and blue eyes. He dropped his books and stooped quickly to pick them up.

"Sorry, I'm clumsy, Vash said sheepishly.

"Hey, don't worry about it," the woman said. "It happens."

"What's your name, Miss?" Vash asked.

"Mary Lloyd," the lady replied. "Yours?"

"It doesn't matter, I'm sorry, Ms. Lloyd," Vash apologized.

Mary Lloyd left Vash with the books in his hands. He settled down into a chair and began reading. Having an inhumanly high I.Q. he could merely skim the contents of a page and comprehend the subject he was reading. He studied U.S. history, the constitution, world history and the science of that century, which was far behind his own, but slowly yet steadily making progress. He learned about World War One and Two, Vietnam and the Gulf War, even technology and computers. He read about television, which was something he'd heard about, but it was much different in the future. Movies were new to him; they couldn't afford to bring any entertainment with them onboard the SEEDS ship. So he decided to see one for himself when he got the opportunity.

He also did research on the doughnut, just because he was obsessed with eating them.

"Hey, Mister," the librarian said, "We're closing."

"Okay," Vash replied and made his way out of there. He couldn't take the books with him he didn't have a library card because you needed an address and didn't have one.

He began walking down the sidewalk, watching all the cars pass him by. He hadn't seen so many cars in one place. On Gunsmoke everyone walked everywhere and Sand Steamers were used for mass transportation to far away cities, if you were lucky enough to have a car, as Meryl and Milly had, you could drive most places but it still took awhile. He remembered how he had broken it and had to carry the seat with the girls on it. Man that was tiring.

Vash once again collided with another individual walking down the street.

"What's the matter with you, you idiot?" The man yelled. "Do you even have a name?"

"Yeah, I do," Vash replied. "It's John Frederick Grayson." There was a sign on the street for Frederick and Grayson Streets at the intersection where he was.

_Gee, I _am _an idiot, _Vash thought. _What kind of a name is John Frederick Grayson? __I just got the name__s__ off some street signs and a doughnut shop.__ Oh well, it sounds normal enough around here._

"Well Mr. Grayson, get out of my way!" the man snarled. Vash was surprised at how rude the man was. He was dressed in a suit that reminded him of Nicholas D. Wolfwood. You'd think a man in a nice suit would at least try to be civil.

He continued walking down the street until he came across a large trailer, it seemed to be stuck on the side street and he realize the tire was flat.

"C'mon Harrison! We have to get her fixed before the show tonight!" a man told him in an irritated tone of voice.

"I know that, Stan, but the tire's flat." Harrison Haly replied. This was just great, there first performance in Metropolis and they had a flat tire.

"Uh, excuse me, do you need some help?" Vash asked

"Not unless you can pick up my trailer and carry it for me," Harrison sarcastically remarked.

Vash, or John Grayson as he called himself, taking Harrison's words a little too literally, went over and began pushing the car forward. Stan Rutledge and Garrison Haly stared at him in shock.

"I can't believe you just did that!" Stan shouted.

"You have a job, Mister…uh," Garrison Haly asked, waiting for the man to give his name.

"John, John Grayson," Vash replied. The name rolled off his tongue easily and he felt comfortable with the identity he had created for himself. Now he just needed to come up with a background that would sound normal and not raise any suspicion that he was from the distant future and that he was an inter-dimensional being, a plant.

"Well, Mr. Grayson thanks for your help," Garrison told him. "Say, you wouldn't be interested in a job, would you?

"What kind of job?" John asked. "What would I be doing?"

"Cleaning up the animal cages, help set up and take down before and after the performances, that sort of thing. Interested?" Harrison asked, extending his hand.

"Sure, what kind of performances do you do?" John asked.

"I thought you would've figured it out by the sign on the trailer," Harrison laughed. "I'm one of the owners of Haly Bros. Circus. Garrison Haly at your service, so what's your answer Mister Grayson?"

"I…I'll do it," John said, it would be perfect, he could stay there, have a job, and learn more about life on Earth without drawing too much attention to himself.

"Welcome to Haly Bros. Circus, Mr. Grayson," Garrison said, smiling, he slapped him on the back. "Stan, get our new hire his papers, we'll get all your information and get you set to go."

Vash, A.K.A. John Grayson smiled. Now all he had do was come up with a believable life story for himself.

_Oh boy, _he thought. _I better come up with something believable or I'm gonna blow my cover. They'll think I'm crazy if I say I'm from the future and stuff. I'll come up with something…somehow…Oh, look; Mr. Haly has a box of doughnuts in the back seat._


	2. Chapter 2: Poker Faces and Doughnuts

**Chapter Two: Poker Faces and Doughnuts**

John Grayson read over the form Garrison Haly had given him. He'd also had to do some fabricating of his identity and made up an address and social security number for himself. He claimed that he had gotten his education through homeschooling and had never gone to college. 

John let out a sigh of relief; so far his new life in the past was proving to be interesting. He needed a way to explain why he carried a firearm…how to do it without drawing suspicion. He paced around the lot where Haly Circus had set up the big top for their performance in Metropolis. 

"So why're you carrying that gun?" Garrison Haly asked. The gun was very intimidating. He thought it resembled a .45 caliber silver Smith & Wesson Model 3 but it had a six-shot double-action revolver chamber and resembled a Mateba Autorevolver. His brilliant mind concocted a logical answer. The constitution of the United States permitted carrying firearms. Self defense was an excellent explanation without arousing suspicion.

"I carry it for protection," he explained. 

"Where'd you get it? Is it custom? I've never seen a gun like that before."

"Yeah, you could say that," John said. As Vash the Stampede, his brother Knives had given it to him, saying that they would use the guns to destroy humanity. Angered, he had turned the weapon on his brother, shooting him in the knee. He then fled, taking both guns; eventually Knives retrieved his weapon and had used it to kill Revenant Buskus, a relative of Rem Saverem, the woman Vash viewed as his mother. She had raised Vash and Knives ever since they had been created Vash and had loved her very much.

The ensuing confrontation between twin brothers had resulted in the July Incident, and although no one was injured in the initial blast, the casualties that resulted from the displacement of thousands of July's citizens caused the bounty to be placed on his head. Vash stared down at his firearm, remembering that the gun was the cause of all his life's troubles.

"I'll run a background check on you, and then we'll see where we go from there," Mr. Haly said. Vash knew that he might have his cover blown if he didn't show up in the government's computer system he'd read about. He also knew how to hack into computers, he had the intelligence to do it, and with such primitive technology, he could easily insert his name into the database without being traced. He quickly asked went into another trailer and hacked his way into the social security database and put all his information in. He made sure his address came up as legitimate and that everything checked out. He then covered his tracks so no one would be able to trace where he had hacked into their database.

"Hey Grayson, go help the bull handler put the elephants away," Garrison Haly called to him. John headed off toward the bull handler and began helping him unload the elephants.

While in the library Vash had studied Earth's animals and knew what an elephant was, he just hadn't expected it to be so big. It was a lot bigger than a Tomas, which were used as transportation animals on Gunsmoke. He would later discover that Tomas' bear a striking resemblance to Eopies in the _Star Wars_ movies.

"They're awful big, aren't they?" Vash asked.

"You never saw an elephant before?" the bull handler asked.

"Well, I've seen pictures, but never one up close," Vash replied. "Come on out, fella." They led the elephant out and into another cage.

"Does he have a name?" John asked.

"Yeah, he's called Zitka," the bull handler replied.

John saw Garrison Haly walking toward him. "Can I do something for you Mr. Haly?"

"No, just wanted to congratulate you on becoming this circus' newest employee," Garrison slapped him on the back. 

John helped the other workers set up the big top and was busy putting up bills around the circus grounds. 

Later while the performance was taking place, John slipped inside the big top using the back door entrance for the employees. He heard Garrison speaking in a hushed, urgent voice to Stan Rutledge, the ringmaster.

"Aw, man, what are we supposed to do?" Garrison asked Stan. "We need something to fill in for Slappy Sammy; the clown just _had _to come down the flu this week. How are we supposed to fill in his performance time? We don't have any backup plan!"

"Pop, I think I can help you out," John said quickly. "I…have a routine I was thinking of that I could try out, and if nobody likes it, I'll never use it again, but it should be long enough."

"Okay, go, and whatever it is, make it really good," Stan told him. John nodded and pulled on his red trench coat, he put on his crooked-looking orange tinted sunglasses and swaggered out into the arena floor using his goofy Vash walk he used when trying to escape notice by playing the idiot.

"I don't believe this," Stan Rutledge put his face in his hands. "He's acting like an idiot."

"The crowd's laughing already, that's a good sign."

"Yeah, he'll be the laughing stock of our circus."

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen!" Vash said to the crowd. "My name is Vash the Stampede. Now I bet you're wondering, "Who is Vash the Stampede?" I am a hunter of peace, one who chases the mayfly of love…or something like that." The crowd laughed at his strange appearance. 

"I am a legendary gunman, an outlaw of the future that does not yet exist, I live on a foreign planet and to top it off, I have an obsessive love of doughnuts! Does anyone have a doughnut?"

"Here's a doughnut for ya!" a man shouted as he threw the pastry at him. He hadn't paid good money to come see some weird goofball talk nonsense. He saw his doughnut go flying and watched as "Vash" suddenly caught it in his mouth. 

"Mmmm, tasty, is this jelly flavored?" The audience roared. They were warming up to him.

"I don't suppose any of you would be interested in one of my stories, huh? Well, I'll tell you one anyway. Where I live I'm a wanted fugitive…the bounty on my head is sixty-billion double dollars…" 

The crowd became more enthralled as he continued, telling of his days on the run, when he came to the part of the story concerning his time in Oregon City, he pantomimed dodging bullets and the audience, laughed and clapped as they followed along, Vash realized that as long as he maintained that his "Vash" identity was part of the show, they bought it. He chose to end his story right after his introduction to Meryl and Milly, seeing that the thirty minutes were up. The acrobats would be next; he waved to the crowd grandly.

"Now I might be able to continue, but only if you people come back for tomorrow's show! Maybe then I'll even demonstrate my legendary gun skills, with rubber bullets of course, trust me, folks, I'm a professional gunman, I know what I'm doing! Thank you! Good night!"

"Hey Pop, how'd I do?" he asked.

"The crowd loved it! And they might actually come back to hear the rest of this story of yours. How'd you come up with this Vash character anyway?"

"I…I dreamed him up once, the story's like a dream I've been having for years," John said. It was true. His life as Vash was like a dream now. He didn't have to worry about being hunted, about people wanting to put a bullet in his head so they could collect the bounty the authorities had placed on him. Everything was so different now that it didn't seem like he had ever really lived life as Vash the Stampede.

"I think it's fantastic, we could actually use this act in our shows. We haven't had any new talent in years. This Vash character could be just the thing to get people to come in," Garrison slapped him on the back. "Just tell me what you need and I'll see if I can make it happen."

John watched Garrison leave and decided to return to his trailer. 

"What a productive day!" Vash told himself. "I've got my own act, what do ya know? Wonder what the others would think if they saw me here."

His thoughts drifted to Nicholas D. Wolfwood and a conversation they'd once had in a bar over a drink.

"_What do you think the future holds Wolfwood?" he asked._

"_I don't know, anything could happen Needle-Noggin," Nicholas D. Wolfwood replied. "For all I know, they could take that bounty off your head, but I highly doubt that."_

_Wolfwood drank some more and put down his glass. _

"_I think the future will be a lot better, people will get along and help each other more, and there won't be anymore wars, or fighting or any of that stuff."_

"_What planet are you on?" Wolfwood frowned. "The only world that works that way is a dream world. Listen Needle-Noggin, this world is a very hard place to live, and people can be even harsher. Not exactly Eden if you know what I mean."_

"_Yeah, but that doesn't mean people can't change. You, for example, can do whatever you want with your life. Your ticket to the future is always open. No matter what happens, you always have the chance to start over."_

"_Strange philosophy, Vash, I'll give it some thought, but as you know, I have no qualms about killing someone if I think they deserve it."_

"_But that's still wrong!" he protested. "No one has the right to take the life of another!"_

"_I wonder how long it'll be before you finally give up on this fantasy belief system of yours," Nicholas said, taking another drink. _

"_I won't ever stop believing it," he told his friend. "No matter what happens."_

"_Suit yourself, Needle-Noggin," Wolfwood finished his glass and called to the saloon girl for more beer. "But you won't convert me to your stupid belief that easily, I've seen and done way too much."_

John sighed and fell asleep on his bed. The next day he found Mr. Haly to ask him a question. 

"Where's the local bank?" he asked. "We're going to come back here a lot right?"

"Yeah, this place does bring in pretty good bounce," Garrison told him. 

"I should open an account; then I'll have some place to keep all my savings," John began walking away, adding under his breath, "If I don't spend it all on doughnuts and beer. I don't think I will, I've always been a frugal kind of guy."

"Here's a map, Johnny, I think it should be a few miles down the road. Good luck with the new account. Here's your paycheck, you'll need money to open one," Mr. Haly saw him smile as he took his earnings. This was the first time Vash had ever earned money which didn't involve gambling or a shooting contest.

He walked down the road, not really minding that he was walking a few miles, he'd always walked on Gunsmoke, the only time he ever took a bus or drove in a car was if it was several iles, their equivalent of earth miles, to the city where he wanted to go.

Arriving at the bank, Vash was about to stash his gun somewhere where he could know where it was while keeping it concealed. He knew that guns weren't allowed in banks, for blatantly obvious reasons.

He suddenly spotted three men removing masks and placing them over their heads. Now Vash was no dummy, he'd seen this go down before and he had foiled more than one robbery in his long lifetime. He also knew that innocent people could die if the robbers got trigger happy. He could take his gun in, but that might just make it worse if they saw him with a gun, the employees might think he was helping the robbers, he decided that the best course of action was to try to overpower the robbers and stop them while making sure that no one else got hurt.

"Okay, okay Vash, think. How do I get inside there without them thinking I know what they're doing?" Well he _was_ going to open a new account, he quickly followed them.

He saw one of the men yelling, "Everybody on the floor!"

Vash decided to follow the instructions, not because he was afraid, but because he was trying to wait for the perfect opportunity to disarm one of the gunmen.

Mary had gone into the bank to withdraw some money when the robbers had arrived; she was huddled down on the floor like everyone else. 

Mary dared to peek up, she didn't see the robbers; her attention was on the alarm button. If she could move over there, she could trigger the alarm and the police would come to stop them. 

"Hey, what are you doing!" the man screamed. Mary gasped in fear as he took two steps over to her and dragged her to her feet by her hair. She cried out in pain.

"Trying to play hero, huh?" the man asked. His voice dripped with cruelty and lust. "Maybe since I'm in a good mood, I'll spare your life and take you with us. You look like you could be a lot of fun—"

Mary suddenly elbowed the man and he retaliated by shoving the barrel of his gun in her mouth.

"That's it, no more Mister Nice Guy! I'm gonna blow your brains out, right here, right now!" the man prepared to pull the trigger. Vash knew he had to do something before the girl needlessly died.

Vash had ducked down near a counter where a bottle of ketchup was sitting. Someone had been eating a burger and had left it there. "Wait! Don't hurt her!" he shouted. 

"So you wanna die first, huh Hero Boy?" the robber asked. He pointed his gun at Vash, who wasn't afraid one bit of the weapon. He'd had plenty of guns pointed at him in his lifetime and knew that he could easily dodge any shots fired at him. He'd make sure that they didn't hit anyone else in the building and then he'd disarm the robber and stop the others from getting away.

_Just make sure you count those bullets,_ Vash thought to himself. The gunman turned his attention to him. Everything was going as planned. 

"You wanna go first Blondie?" he demanded. He pulled the trigger and fired. To his surprise, the blond haired man moved out of the way and the bullet embedded itself in the desk. 

"Hold still so I can shoot you, you idiot!" the robber shouted.

"Like I actually _want _you to shoot me!" Vash retorted. He ducked behind a desk. Another gunshot went off and Mary saw the blond haired man lying on his face, there was something red on the floor. It was blood, or appeared to be blood. The gunman turned his attention back to her. 

"Don't think that I forgot about you," he sneered. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I honestly hope you'll compensate me for this mess. It'll take a great deal of dry cleaning to get this out of my favorite shirt."

"Eh?" the robber stared at Vash in horror. "Didn't I kill you?"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, I'm quite used to people shooting at me," Vash suddenly gripped the man's wrist, forcing him to drop the gun. Quickly catching it, he shot the astonished robber and watched as the two other men opened fire.

Everything moved in slow motion for Vash as he leaped away and avoided a spray of bullets. He fired back, aiming carefully; he had counted the number of bullets remaining in his gun and knew how many shots he had left. He also knew how many shots they had left. 

"Everybody stay down!" he commanded. He moved away from the customers as he aimed his gun and fired, two bullets lodged themselves in a gunman as he dropped his weapon and clutched at his wounded knees. 

Vash leaped across the room, expertly aiming his gun and popping off two shots and the bullets hit their marks as he shot the remaining criminals in their hands, forcing them to drop their guns. They rushed forward and grabbed their weapons. 

"You're a dead man, you hear me? A dead man!" the man was wearing a dark leather coat screamed. His accomplice the man Vash had shot in the knee was wearing a jean jacket and black pants. The third man was wearing a plaid shirt and khakis. 

"Okay, I dare you to shoot me," Vash taunted. "Hey, you've earned it! Give me your best shot!"

The two men squeezed the triggers. To their shock and horror, their guns were empty!

"What—what's going on here?" the plaid wearing robber demanded.

"Unfortunately for you, gentlemen, I knew how many bullets you had left and I was fully prepared to stop you from hurting these innocent people."

"The three men cursed at him. "We've been planning this heist for months!" they grumbled. "How could you possibly know how many bullets we had in our guns?"

"I counted," Vash smiled. The men threw down their empty weapons and fell to their knees.

"C'mon man, give us a break. We'll give you the cut of the cash!" they pleaded.

"It's not really worth it, especially since you were about to kill such a gorgeous young lady there. I couldn't possibly condone that," Vash kept his gun on them. "Someone call the police, and then find one of those first aid kits. As for you guys, I want to teach you an important lesson."

"W—what would that be, man?" the man in the jean jacket asked as he clutched his wounds.

"Repeat after me," Vash commanded. "This world is made…" the men stared at him. "This world is made of…"

"This world is made of…" the three robbers repeated hesitantly until Vash made them repeat it louder.

"LOVE AND PEACE!" Vash finished. The three men, along with the rest of the people in the bank stared at him.

"Blondie are you a hippie?" the wounded robber asked. 

Mary stared at the strange young man with a mixture of irritation and admiration. He was the bravest person she'd ever seen. And he had to be the craziest. No human being in their right mind would have tried to take on three armed robbers. She knew that the "gorgeous young lady"was herself and even though she barely knew him, the blonde, hippie-like stranger was very flirtatious with the opposite sex.

Mary felt drawn to him, although she couldn't say why. She knew she had to do something to thank him for saving her life. She didn't think he'd take money; he didn't seem like a materialistic individual. She watched the police arrest the men and the others told them of their strange, hippie-like savior. She saw him walk out the door and she followed him. 

"Hey there stranger," Mary Lloyd greeted him. He was the goofy young man who'd bumped into her at the library. She hadn't gotten his name but he had bravely and foolhardily risked his life to save her when the robber had shoved the barrel of his gun in her mouth. 

"I…I was wondering…how might I thank you…I mean, you saved my life in there."

"Well there is something you can get me…"

"What would that be?"

"A lovely box filled with a dozen of various types of doughnuts!" Vash said excitedly, his eyes danced with glee and he rubbed his hands together like a child, to top it off, much to Mary's discomfort, he was jumping up and down like one too.

_Oh great, _Mary groaned inwardly. _Not only is he a hippie, he's a child-like hippie._

"My apologies," she apologized. "I haven't even gotten your name."

"It's John Grayson, Ms. Lloyd. I honestly didn't expect to see you here." 

Mary blushed. 

"Of course, the ladies never can resist my charms," he laughed. Mary stopped blushing.

"If you hadn't saved my life I'd probably slap you right now."

"Well, I'd rather have doughnuts than be slapped," he admitted. 

"I have to go back to work, but I_will _get you those doughnuts you wanted. After I'm done, I'll meet you down at a place I know very well. Do you live around here?"

"No, I work at Haly Circus," John admitted. To his surprise, Mary's face lit up.

"I've heard of that place, I used to be in a circus myself, the Norton Bros., Haly's' stout competition. Nice to see a fellow kinker."

"Eh, kinker?" Vash hadn't heard the term before.

"It's a term for performer," Mary laughed. He must be a novice. 

"What's your act?" 

"It's…hard to explain," John remembered he had some free tickets stuffed in his pockets. Pop had told him that he had the job of papering the house, so he had a bunch of free tickets to give away. "If you'll come to the circus for tonight's performance you'll be able to see for yourself."

Mary took the ticket and smiled. It's been forever since she'd gone to the circus. This was just what she needed. The stress of work was getting to her. 

"Tell you what, since you're performing tonight, I'll bring you those doughnuts all right?"

"Just promise me you'll show up."

"Don't worry, I will. I really don't know how to thank you…and would you mind walking me back to work? All this stuff makes me a little nervous walking back by myself."

"Sure, I've got time."

She told him where the dental office was and he was nice enough to escort her back there. 

Word of the robbery and Vash's heroism had spread across the local news. One of Mary's coworkers had seen the news and was worried about her friend.

"See you later," Vash said, walking out the door. 

Vash began to run and skip down the street. He hadn't ever met anyone like Mary Lloyd before and it made his heart flutter and he had butterflies in his stomach. He opened his mouth and belted out in the most idiotically profound words he had ever uttered about another person in a high pitched, girly voice.

"I THINK I'M IN LOOOOVVVVEEEEE!"

* * *

"See you later," Vash told her. Mary smiled and watched him leave. 

"Uh, Mary, who _is _that guy?" one of her coworkers asked.

"He's a brave, nice young man who saved my life during that bank robbery.

"The one I heard about? You were in there? What'd he do?"

"He somehow got a hold of a gun and wounded the robbers when they tried to shoot me. I swear they were going to kill me."

"But he saved you."

"Yeah, he did."

"Are you sure? That guy acts like a complete idiot."

"I know, but he's a brave idiot."

"You're _looking_ at him."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you think he's kind of cute," her coworker said, winking. "You kind of like him, don't you?"

"It's not like I'm going to marry him!" Mary turned to her friend, exasperated. 

"Oh I see. Did you get his name then?" her friend inquired curiously.

"Yes, his name is John Grayson."


End file.
